Modern Technology Against the Wolves

Recently, The New York Times reported how modern technology is being used in man’s war against the wolves in Alaska. Alaska is a huge state bigger than France, Spain and Italy combined. Its total population is a little over 400,000 humans, and no more than 12,000 wolves. In the rest of the United States there are more than 200 million humans, but there are only a thousand or so wolves. Clearly, the wolf’s continued existence is precarious. Nevertheless, state sharpshooters have been hunting wolves from airplanes, and, to make their hunting more effective, they have been trapping a wolf pup and equipping it with a collar with a small radio transmitter. When the cub tries to rejoin its pack, the airborne hunters follow the signals from the collar and zero in on the whole pack.

Why do they try to kill the wolves? The reasoning, which many do not accept, is that the wolves kill moose that human hunters want. Many are disturbed, however, for another reason. Radio collars were developed to gain knowledge of animals so as to preserve threatened species. “This is the first time radio-tracking has been used to destroy,” reports The New York Times.